CAMPANULA KOTUNDIFOLIA. BLUEBELL 07 SCOTLAND. II 



was gathered in Massachusetts, certainly shows that the root- 

 leaves are not always entirely wanting when the plant is in 

 flower, although they may not be on the shoot bearing the 

 flowers. 



The leaves of Campamda rotundifolia illustrate a very inter- 

 esting jahase of vegetable morphology. We know that all the 

 various organs of a plant are simply modified leaves, and yet we 

 seldom find a gradual transformation of one organ into another, 

 the changes taking place, as a rule, rhythmically, or in leaps. 

 So in our present species, there is no gradual transition from 

 root-leaves to stem-leaves, but the change from the one shape to 

 the other is accomplished all at once, although the difference 

 between the two is very great. The change from the narrow, 

 linear stem-leaves to the broad corolla is also very marked, and 

 it is difficult to trace any relationship between the two. The 

 little, thready underground stem, however, shows more regularity 

 in its work. The flower-stem at 2 has very narrow leaves, the 

 succeeding shoot (3) has leaves somewhat broader, and the last 

 one (4) bears the broadest of all, as it produces the round root- 

 leaves to which the plant owes its specific name. We conclude 

 from this that at certain stages of the plant's growth the rhythmi- 

 cal cycles may either begin or terminate in a broad, foliaceous 

 arrangement, and we may therefore look upon the corolla cycle 

 or verticil as the analogue of the broader root-leaves, rather than 

 as that of the linear leaves of the flowering stem. That this 

 view is correct is proved by a case recorded by Prof. Peck, in 

 the twenty-seventh "Annual Report to the New York State 

 Museum." Plants of the Bluebell were found at Point Jarvis, 

 N. Y., which had the usual narrow leaves on the stem, but 

 which, instead of terminating in flowers, terminated in round 

 leaves. 



In the United States our species is found from the New 

 England States southward to the northern parts of New Jersey 

 and Pennsylvania, thence westward across the northern part of 

 Ohio to Michigan and to Wisconsin, where it seems particularly 



